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I have two stories-
1. Stuck on a freeway with no way off for 4 hours due to an accident.
2. I've never been late to work at my current job. I left 5 minutes earlier than I normally do. I got on the freeway as the accident occured. Sat in traffic with all lanes closed for over an hour. Moral of the story? Never leave for work early!

Niagra Falls, New York to Waltham, Mass. Station wagon packed to the roof with belongings and 2 adults, 6 children (aged 1 1/2 to 13) 1 dog and 2 cats. Took over 14 hours due to a blinding snowstorm. I was the 13 year old and had coffee for the first time that morning. I had an allergic reaction and broke out in giant, painfully itchy hives. I'm starting to itch just thinking about it!

I'll take commute to mean travel to or from work or school and not trips for vacations and the like. (If we count vacation travel, it would be my 23 hour trip from NY City to Las Vegas involving three cabs and five jet planes.)

For commuting, I've been fairly lucky as my normal commute has been 1 to 5 miles not requiring any highways or bridges for the last 25 or so years. Worst case has been during a blizzard or just after a tornado, both of which took about 45 minutes.

Prior to that, I was stuck on a stalled elevated subway train between stations (this contradiction will sense to New Yorkers, the IRT #7 line) for about six hours back in the early 80s during a blizzard.

9-11 caused a hellish commute for a number of my friends, family and coworkers. My girlfriend's normally 20-40 minute commute took over eight hours that day, with more than six of them parked 20 yards from the bridge she needed to cross to get home. My sister had to walk about 1/2 of the 13 or so miles to get home.

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I have two stories-
1. Stuck on a freeway with no way off for 4 hours due to an accident.
2. I've never been late to work at my current job. I left 5 minutes earlier than I normally do. I got on the freeway as the accident occured. Sat in traffic with all lanes closed for over an hour. Moral of the story? Never leave for work early!

Niagra Falls, New York to Waltham, Mass. Station wagon packed to the roof with belongings and 2 adults, 6 children (aged 1 1/2 to 13) 1 dog and 2 cats. Took over 14 hours due to a blinding snowstorm. I was the 13 year old and had coffee for the first time that morning. I had an allergic reaction and broke out in giant, painfully itchy hives. I'm starting to itch just thinking about it!

My daughter called me at work, and said "Come home, now, they're rioting, and burning down the city!" I left, and 10 minutes after I left, everyone was sent home for the day. I understand it took people 30 minutes just to get out of the parking lots. My normal 34 mile/55 minute commute took about three hours. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_riots_of_1992)

The Northridge Quake (1994) presented a few challenges. That 34 mile commute became more like 50 (due to obstacles and damaged roads), and stayed at 90 minutes or more for a couple of weeks.

Oh I forgot one- not really a commute though...We were on vacation and were driving towards Nashville. The storm hit, and they shut down the roads. We were stuck there for nearly 12 hours. FEMA brought us food and drinks. It was awful!

I'll take commute to mean travel to or from work or school and not trips for vacations and the like. (If we count vacation travel, it would be my 23 hour trip from NY City to Las Vegas involving three cabs and five jet planes.)

For commuting, I've been fairly lucky as my normal commute has been 1 to 5 miles not requiring any highways or bridges for the last 25 or so years. Worst case has been during a blizzard or just after a tornado, both of which took about 45 minutes.

Prior to that, I was stuck on a stalled elevated subway train between stations (this contradiction will sense to New Yorkers, the IRT #7 line) for about six hours back in the early 80s during a blizzard.

9-11 caused a hellish commute for a number of my friends, family and coworkers. My girlfriend's normally 20-40 minute commute took over eight hours that day, with more than six of them parked 20 yards from the bridge she needed to cross to get home. My sister had to walk about 1/2 of the 13 or so miles to get home.

Several years ago we had a sudden ice storm hit Raleigh shortly before rush hour.

Commutes that typically take 10-15 minutes took 4-5 hours that night.

And there were no alternate routes to take because all roads were just as backed up.

My then-girlfriend-now-wife lived in Durham about15 minutes (on a typical day) west. The roads were't effected there art all. I called her after being on the road for well over an hour and only moving about 3 miles. I was pretty stressed out. She and her roommate had run out dinner and were't even aware that the roads in Raleigh were bad.

What? no "snowmaggedon" posts here yet? The D.C. area had a mid-afternoon snowstorm last winter. Traffic here is bad enough, but with everyone leaving at once (probably should have let everyone out earlier, or treated earlier) things jammed up and got slick quickly.

My husband's hour and a half commute (1/3 of it on the metro) turned into eight hours that day. He had to stop for gas midway through. People were abandoning their cars in the road if they couldn't get traction. One friend posted her situation on facebook, discovered a co-worker lives nearby where she was stranded, so parked her car and stayed with the co-worker for the night.

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Geez, why so negative?

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Too late, we all heard you!

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